Nagging leads teens to drugs, says study

OTTAWA - The odds of adolescents getting drunk and using drugs are
relatively high if they see their parents as constantly nagging them,
Statistics Canada's first national study of alcohol and drug use among 12-
to 15-year-olds shows.

The survey of 4,296 young people, released Tuesday, found four in 10 had
consumed one alcoholic drink at least once and more than one in five (22 per
cent) had been drunk.

About one-fifth (or 19 per cent) also reported having smoked marijuana.

The younger adolescents were not asked about hallucinogens -- including
mushrooms, ecstasy and LSD -- but 11 per cent of teens aged 14 and 15
reported having tried them.

The average age at which they had reported their first drink was 12.4 years,
and they first got drunk on average at 13.2 years of age.

The average age for first-time marijuana use was slightly younger, at 13.1,
and youth for experimenting with hallucinogens slightly older, at 13.8.

"Statistically, we wouldn't characterize it as common or an epidemic," said
co-author Dave Haans of Statistics Canada's Research Data Centre at the
University of Toronto.

"Experimenting with alcohol and drugs in adolescence is fairly common. One
of the other ways at looking at our figures is the majority of adolescents
in our survey engaged in no substance use. It's a matter of seeing the glass
half full or half empty."

The survey found that the peer group emerged as the strongest risk factor,
with alcohol and drug use more likely when their friends also drank or tried
drugs.

But the study also found hostile parenting styles -- characterized by
nagging, inconsistent enforcement of rules, threats and anger -- have an
impact on teen behaviour.